Anagram-type games usually include the presentation of at least one word, whose constituent letters are displayed out of order. One object of such a game is normally for a player to unscramble the displayed letters to form a word. Several well known anagram-type games have been published in newspapers as featured word games (such as SCRABBLE-GRAM.RTM., JUMBLE.RTM., and REVELATION.RTM.) or as board games (such as SCRABBLE.RTM. or BOGGLE.RTM.). However, anagram-type games have thus far been unsuccessful in either a computer game or t.v. game show format. There are many reasons for this lack of success, but it mostly stems from the failure of the producers to fully understand and appreciate the nature of such word games. Anagram-type word games require a great deal of study and concentration not only for the players to be able to solve the anagrams but, even more importantly for the success of a t.v. game show or computer game, for the enjoyment of onlookers and home viewers. It is therefor absolutely necessary for the success of such a format that every opportunity be taken to provide ways to allow all people watching the game to easily study the puzzle, to easily follow the progress of the game and to easily understand how and where the letters are moved from their scrambled positions to their unscrambled positions.
A prior art TV game show named CAESAR'S CHALLENGE.RTM. provides an excellent example of the failure to appreciate the need for onlookers to study and concentrate on the puzzle and follow the progress of its solution. On CAESAR'S CHALLENGE.RTM., the contestants and the viewing audience were presented with an anagram puzzle in which the location of the letters were repeatedly shifted with no clear and easy means of following the movement of the letters. It was frustrating, particularly for members of the viewing audience who had not yet solved the anagram, to readjust one's concentration every time the location of the letters shifted; and it was further especially frustrating to see the solution to the anagram presented without being able to follow the movement of the letters and allowing the viewer to see clearly and easily how the anagram was solved. The active participation of the average viewer is lost when the viewer is not given an opportunity to solve the puzzle, or at least be provided with an easy way of seeing how the puzzle is solved. And when active participation is lost, so is the enjoyment.
Similarly, a previous t.v. game show version of REVELATION.RTM. also failed in several respects to provide ways for onlookers and the viewing audience to easily follow the progress of the game and the unscrambling of the letters of the several anagrams presented in a REVELATION.RTM. puzzle.
Another reason that previous anagram-type games have failed in the t.v. game show or computer game format is that such games have only displayed one anagram at a time, and therefor onlookers get frustrated if they are unable to solve that one anagram, or they get impatient and lose interest if they solve the one anagram quickly and have to wait for the contestants to solve it before having another anagram displayed.
Another reason that previous anagram-type games have failed in the t.v. game show or computer game format is that the unique ability to solve anagrams requires a certain aptitude which many viewers do not have. If there is nothing else in the game except an anagram, then viewers with no aptitude for solving anagrams will not watch.
There is a need to provide ways for onlookers and the viewing audience of anagram-type game shows and computer games to more easily follow the progress of the game and understand how and to where the letters of the anagram(s) are unscrambled.
There is a need for an anagram-type game show and/or computer game which displays more than on anagram at a time.
There is a need for an anagram-type game show and/or computer game which includes other puzzle-solving skills in addition to solving anagrams, and preferrably the other puzzle-solving skills will be part of the puzzle displayed.